Gordaen’s Blog

The snow sure looks beautiful… but it sucks to drive in. If you can avoid I-5 in Whatcom County, I recommend doing so. If not, get some chains and bring a lot of patience. Hopefully the Department of Transportation has cleared up some of it by now, but it was extremely bad last night.

Yesterday, I was driving back from Ocean Shores, Washington with my girlfriend and two cats in the MR2. It’s normally a four hour drive, but it ended up taking close to twelve hours. Around Everett, the snow was coming down strong, but traffic was still moving reasonably well. Once we made it just short of mile marker 240 on I-5 northbound, traffic was completely stopped. It was another 45 minutes before we moved a few feet and then stayed still again.

Eventually, we made it back just a bit before midnight (we had left at noon). The conditions were definitely the worst I have ever seen. Most people were smart, but there were a few idiots. The snow plow came up along the shoulder on the right and moved into the lane just a few cars ahead of us and some guy pulling his 20-30ft trailer was following the plow. When he saw it pull into traffic, he thought he could cut in front of me, so he tried to just force his way into a half-car space… I kept honking and flashing my lights. Everyone else waited patiently in the actual lanes like they should, but this guy thought he could pass by everyone and force his way in. He came an inch or less from hitting my passenger-side mirror.

Pulling into my parking spot was the only point where I actually got stuck. I ended up having to dump a bunch of cat litter on the ground and have my girlfriend attempt to sweep it under the tires as I nudged the car forward. After a few minutes, I made it into the spot, albeit a little crooked.

Around the apartment complex, the snow is 8-15 inches deep depending on where you look. I’m amazed that no large-area power outages have plagued the county. I’m definitely going to avoid driving for a while, especially if the snow continues. Weather forecasts are showing some snow today/tonight and more later this week.